Jury & Guests

Cheval Noir Jury

Jury President

Mark Adams

Critic

Mark Adams is Chief Film Critic for respected film trade paper Screen International and he is also currently film critic for The Sunday Mirror in the U.K. He attends most of the key international film festivals around the world and, as a film journalist and reviewer for more than 25 years, he has written for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Moving Pictures International, as well as many national newspapers in the U.K. He has also worked extensively in the film industry. He was Head of Programming at the National Film Theatre in London for six years, and also worked as Director of Cinema at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.

Anne-Marie Gélinas

Producer

Producer Anne-Marie Gélinas’ titles include: REBELLE (WAR WITCH), as Line Producer for Item7. The film won a Silver Bear in the Berlinale, Best Film and Best Actress at Tribeca and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Through EMAfilms, she co-produced with France and Israel A BOTTLE IN THE GAZA SEA, nominated for three Prix Lumières in France and one in Québec’s Jutras. Also, Martin Villeneuve’s debut feature MARS & AVRIL which played many festivals, including Karlovy Vary, Mumbai and Mill Valley, and was honoured with nine nominations in Canada (four in Toronto and five in Québec). EMAfilms just finished the filming of TURBO KID, a co-production with New Zealand, written and directed by the RKSS collective.

Noah Segan

Actor, Producer

Noah Segan was born in Brooklyn, New York and currently resides in Hollywood, California. He can most recently be seen in the upcoming independent features SOME KIND OF HATE, HOT and CHUCK HANK AND THE SAN DIEGO TWINS, as well as producing and costarring in international action film REDEEMER. He recently starred in the independent features STARRY EYES, which had a 2014 SXSW premiere, and THE FROZEN. 2012 represented a monumental year for Noah as he reunited with the crew of his first film, BRICK, filmmaker Rian Johnson and star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in LOOPER. After a supporting role in the Sundance-winning BRICK, Noah’s choices continued to be as varied and left-of-centre as the films themselves. His lead performance in DEADGIRL resulted in Noah winning multiple awards after a prestigious premiere at The Toronto International Film Festival. In his free time, Noah enjoys Westerns, boxing, collecting wristwatches and the band The Replacements. His favourite actor is Warren Oates, who died, as Noah plans to do one day as well.

Jasper Sharp

Critic, Author, Filmmaker

Jasper Sharp is an author, curator and filmmaker based in London. He is the co-founder of the Japanese cinema website Midnight Eye (www.midnighteye.com). His book publications include “The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film” (2003), co-written with Tom Mes,“Behind the Pink Curtain” (2008) and “Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema”. He has curated touring retrospectives and film seasons across the world, in collaboration with such organizations as the British Film Institute, the Deutches Filmmuseum, and the Cinemathèque Québécoise. He is the co-director of THE CREEPING GARDEN (2014), with Tim Grabham, a documentary about slime moulds.

Bret Wood

Author, Filmmaker, Disc Producer

Bret Wood is a Blu-Ray producer and designer who crafted series devoted to Jean Rollin (Redemption), Mario Bava (Kino Lorber), Pete Walker (Redemption), as well as the silent films of Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, and many others. He recently joined Olive Films, where he has several projects in development. As a filmmaker, Bret is the director of THE UNWANTED, PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS, and HELL’S HIGHWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY FILMS. He co-authored the book “Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Film”. His essays have appeared in Film Comment, Video Watchdog, Sight and Sound, and Fangoria.

First Feature Jury

Jury President

James Emanuel Shapiro

COO, Drafthouse Films

James Emanuel Shapiro is Drafthouse Film’s Chief Operating Officer since 2011. Founded in 2010, Drafthouse Films is the film distribution arm of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a curated brand of provocative, visionary and artfully unusual films new and old from around the world. James was previously Executive Director of Sales Planning and Acquisitions for Anchor Bay Entertainment and helped build Anchor Bay Films into a top full-service independent distribution company. He’s based in L.A., consumes too much rye, believes in the divinity of Kubrick, Galaxie 500, and the French New Wave, is an avid sports fan, loves his girlfriend Deb and their four pets, and sometimes drinks from a volcano.

Jeff Barnaby

Filmmaker, Author, Musician

Jeff Barnaby is a Mi’gmaq filmmaker, writer, musician and artist who, after a decade of making short films, released his first feature, RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS, in 2013. His short films garnered several awards and nominations, including a Genie nomination for FILE UNDER MISCELLANEOUS (2010), and he won the 2012 TriBeCa Creative Promise award for the screenplay that became RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS. Filmed in 2012, RFYG premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was named one of its Top 10 Canadian features, and also won Best Canadian First Feature (ex-aequo) at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where the Vancouver Film Critics Circle also awarded Jeff the honour of Best Director of a Canadian Film.

Charlie Reff

Festival Planner and Programmer

While studying film and TV in college, Charlie was offered a job delivering groceries and newspapers to the offices of Entertainment Tonight at 4 a.m., Mon- Fri, so that was the beginning. He later worked in marketing at Tartan Films USA, film acquisitions at Paramount Vantage, and a short stint at Peace Arch where they fucked him over. He now focuses on programming the NEXT and Park City at Midnight sections at the Sundance Film Festival. He also helps plan Sundance London and Sundance NEXT FEST. He moved to Southern California in 2001 from Dallas, TX to study at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

International Short Film Jury

Jury President

Aaron Hillis

Critic, Programmer, Filmmaker

Aaron Hillis was recently praised by Brooklyn Magazine as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture.” Aaron is a film critic, programmer, and filmmaker who has written for The Village Voice, Time Out Ny, La Weekly, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, The Playlist, Indiewire, Greencine Daily, Premiere and Spin. He is also the owner of Video Free Brooklyn, three-time “Best Video Store in NYC” winner.

Elodie Dupont

Festivals Coordinator, Festival Agency

Elodie Dupont graduated with a master’s degree in Art Management from Bordeaux Management School in 2011, after studying there and in Birmingham. In Bordeaux, she managed a short film festival and dedicated herself to this event during two years. She worked for SND in 2010 as marketing assistant and joined The Festival Agency in 2012.

Donato Totaro

Donato Totaro is editor of the longest running (since 1997) monthly online film journal, Offscreen (www.offscreen.com), and a member of AQCC “Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma” since 2004, and a part-time professor in Film Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) since 1990. Totaro’s writing has appeared in Séquences, 24 Images, Fangoria, South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography 1915-1994 (1996), Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada (2001), Eaten Alive!: Italian Cannibal and Zombie Movies (2002), The Cinema of Japan and Korea (2004), 100 European Horror Films (2007), Cult TV (2010), Fear Without Frontiers (2003), and Historical Dictionary of South American Cinema (2014).

Animation Jury

Pierre Grenier

Animation Department Coordinator, Cégep du Vieux Montréal

Working in the field of animation for over 20 years now, a graduate of Université Laval in graphic communication, and Sheridan College in traditional animation, Pierre Grenier has held different posts in production and supervision in Toronto, Dublin and Montreal. He contributed to the founding of the studio Fourmis Rouge Animation, supervised animation and storyboarding for various television shows, and has worked as freelance animator and consultant for advertising, CD-ROMs and feature films. After having participated in the development of government programs for 2D and 3D animation, and image synthesis, In 1999 Grenier was engaged to help implement them at Cégep du Vieux Montréal, where he holds the position of Animation Department Coordinator.

OBOM

Filmmaker, Comic Artist

Montreal-based animator and comic artist Diane Obomsawin, alias OBOM, has created several films in conjunction with the National Film Board, including HERE AND THERE (2006) et KASPAR (INSPIRED BY THE LIFE OF KASPAR HAUSER) (2012). She has also published comics with L’Oie de Cravan and Drawn and Quarterly. Over the years, OBOM has developed her own distinctive voice, with a touch of restraint and naiveté, humour and empathy, frequently incorporating autobiographical details. All her works are invested with candour and strong intentions, both in their scripting and in the simplified artwork. This potent equilibrium affords her work the quality of urban fables, poetic and anchored in real life.

Janet Perlman

Filmmaker

Janet Perlman is an independent animation director whose work shows a distinctively absurdist sense of humour, evident in her films THE TENDER TALE OF CINDERELLA PENGUIN, WHY ME?, MY FAVORITE THINGS THAT I LOVE, and SORRY FILM NOT READY. She has directed animated segments for television’s SESAME STREET, contributed to group films including Marv Newland’s ANIJAM and PINK KOMKOMMER, and created the TV special PENGUINS BEHIND BARS, a parody of 1950s “women in prison” movies. For the National Film Board series ShowPeace, which explores conflict resolution, Perlman made DINNER FOR TWO and BULLY DANCE, the latter on the subject of bullying. Among her many awards are an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, an Emmy Award, and many festival grand prizes. Perlman has taught animation at Harvard, Rhode Island School of Design and Concordia University, and has written and illustrated four children’s books. Her latest work is a ten-minute film called MONSIEUR PUG, which was produced by the French Animation studio at the National Film Board of Canada.